Town of St. Pauls Celebrates Opening of Sanderson Farms
Sanderson Farms recently opened its 11th fully integrated poultry facility nationwide in St. Pauls, N.C. Accompanied by an existing 65,000 sq. ft. hatchery located in Lumberton, N.C., as well as a feed mill in Kinston, N.C., the new plant sits on approximately 150 acres within a 200-acre industrial park site.
To aid in this process, McGill Associates assisted the Town of St. Pauls with CDBG-ED and Golden LEAF funding applications in order to improve the Town’s wastewater system to accommodate the increased load of domestic wastewater coming from the new industrial facility. The funding applications successfully resulted in $1,000,000 from the Community Development Block Grant – Economic Development program and $820,000 from the Golden LEAF Foundation. McGill Associates also managed the grant administration for the CDBG-ED grant for the extent of the project.
With the addition of the facility, the Town of St. Pauls is able to support the creation of 1,100 new jobs, (the Town has about 2,250 residents), contract 100 contract growers, and invest $100 million in the local economy.
“I think it’s probably one of the best things we’ve had in 30 years,” said St. Pauls Mayor Gordon “Buddy” Westbrook in a recent media release. “We need the project. We need the jobs, so it’s great.”
In addition to the 1,600 workers the company already employs in North Carolina, Sanderson Farms said it looks forward to providing employment opportunities to Robeson County.
“We’re hiring a lot of good, local people,” said Pic Billingsley, director of development and engineering for Sanderson Farms in a recent media release.
The facility features the latest technology in the poultry industry, including food safety, employee welfare and environmental conservation. The complex will be able to process 1.25 million birds per week for the big bird deboning market and will sell approximately 500 million lb. of dressed poultry meat annually.
McGill Associates is pleased to assist the with the growth and success of the St. Paul’s community.